Clues

Almost six years after Jennifer Kesse vanished from her Orlando condominium, law-enforcement launched a new ground search Friday for the missing woman, but found nothing of significance. Orlando Police think Kesse, who was 24 when she disappeared, was abducted from her condominium near the Mall at Millenia on January 24, 2006. Just days later, her Chevrolet Malibu was discovered about a mile away at the intersection of Americana Boulevard and Texas Avenue. Orlando police officers were following up on an old tip Friday.

Days before what would have been Terry Guerrier's 29th birthday, his 4-year-old daughter added the person who shot and killed her father to her nightly prayers, her mother said. It has been more than two years since the little girl last saw her father. Guerrier was gunned down while driving away from Club LAX near Universal Orlando in March 2012, police say. Since the Orlando man's death, homicide detectives have exhausted every lead but have still not been able to arrest his killer.

UMATILLA – A 31-year-old man is in critical condition this morning after he was shot in the chest last Saturday inside his home on Line Street, authorities said. Now investigators are looking for clues and want to talk to anyone that knows more about the early-morning shooting. When deputy sheriffs arrived at DeShawn Williams' home just after 1 a.m. Saturday, they found him lying on the floor with a chest wound. Williams was airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center. Lake detectives said Williams initially was cooperative with investigators but suddenly stopped answering questions.

One of Orlando's newest attractions has no special effects, lap restraints or roller-coaster loops, and it takes place inside a single locked room downtown. At the Great Escape Room, groups of up to 10 quick-thinking thrill-seekers go on a scavenger hunt to find clues and solve puzzles hidden — sometimes in plain sight — to find a way out of the room within 60 minutes. More than 200 people have entered the brain-teasing chamber since it opened less than a month ago; fewer than 40 have completed the challenge.

Kissimmee police and relatives of the victims distributed fliers at The Willows Village apartment complex Monday night in the hope of solving a 5-year-old unsolved double homicide. "It brings attention to the case and lets people know we're still out here looking," police spokeswoman Stacie Miller said. Alejandro Rivera and Hector Santiago were shot several times during a robbery at the complex on West Carroll Street about 4:45 a.m. Nov. 20, 2006. The suspects — three or four men said to be in their mid- to late 20s — drove away in a small, light-colored car with dark bumpers, thought to be a 1985-1990 model.

Cheri Houston, 28, was caught on a store surveillance video walking with a bald man who was chatting on a cell phone at an Ocoee Walmart just days before her body was found in the woods. Lake County sheriff's investigators Wednesday released photos of the man and Houston leaving the store at 10500 W. Colonial Drive about 6:15 p.m. April 2. That was just two days before her body was discovered by a resident on a Friday morning stroll near Hancock and Hartwood Marsh roads south of Clermont.

Like a detective hunting for clues, Kathleen Sewright pores over a fragile music manuscript on an upper floor of University of Central Florida's library. There is a mystery afoot: What is the history of the extremely rare, centuries-old illuminated religious book recently donated to the university? This much is known: It was bought in Spain during the long rule of dictator Francisco Franco, and it spent the next 50 years in the home of a Maitland art lover. But the early days of the manuscript, called an antiphonary, are lost in the mists of time.

MONTGOMERY WARD is considering leasing one of six department store ''pads'' at the planned Seminole Towne Center mall in Sanford. No, Ward didn't make an announcement, and neither did the developer, Melvin Simon & Associates Inc. The clue comes from a site plan Simon was showing off last week at a state meeting of shopping center developers. There was no sign of Belk-Lindsey, which had appeared on another site plan.

Orange County homicide detectives searched two homes near Apopka Friday, digging and raking and looking inside for clues in a two-year-old missing-person case. They were looking for Ronald Justice, 31, who went missing two years ago, said Deputy Ginette Rodriguez, a Sheriff's Office spokeswoman. Deputies searched homes on Slote Drive and Adirondack Court. Rodriguez said they were places Justice was known to frequent. A detective said "small pieces of material" deputies found would be sent to a lab for analysis.

Lake County Sheriff's deputies are looking for clues as to how a caged Chihuahua ended up on one resident's trash pile. The dog was found last Wednesday dumped, locked in a cage in the Pine Lakes area near Deland, according to a Sheriff's Office report. Before the garbage truck passed by, however, a pedestrian took it home, bathed it and called animal control. The dog was checked for a microchip, but none was found, and no one in the area recognized it. The Chihuahua is now being kept at Lake County Animal Services, and an agriculture deputy is investigating the incident as animal cruelty.

Lake County sheriff's investigators are still piecing together clues about 28-year-old Cheri Houston's suspicious death and are hoping to identify a man she was with during her final days alive. Houston's body was found in the woods south of Clermont last Friday near Hancock and Hartwood Marsh roads. Investigators have since released photos of her just two days prior about 6:15 p.m. at an Ocoee Walmart walking with a bald man in the store's parking lot. At one point the man can be seen chatting on a cell phone at the Walmart located at 10500 W. Colonial Drive.

Cheri Houston, 28, was caught on a store surveillance video walking with a bald man who was chatting on a cell phone at an Ocoee Walmart just days before her body was found in the woods. Lake County sheriff's investigators Wednesday released photos of the man and Houston leaving the store at 10500 W. Colonial Drive about 6:15 p.m. April 2. That was just two days before her body was discovered by a resident on a Friday morning stroll near Hancock and Hartwood Marsh roads south of Clermont.

No one can say for certain who will ride the SunRail commuter train when it starts May 1, but a look at a similar system that has run in South Florida for 25 years could offer some clues. SunRail officials say they have developed no demographic model about what to expect for its riders, but transit experts contend commuter systems tend to attract so-called choice riders - in other words, passengers who own or have access to autos but take the train anyway. That has been the case with Tri-Rail, the commuter-rail system that has run along Interstate 95 since 1989.

Detectives investigating the case of missing Deltona mother Yessenia Suarez and her two children are asking the public to review business and residential surveillance video to see if clues related to the disappearances may have been captured. Suarez and her children Thalia Otto, 9, and Michael Otto, 8, were last seen Oct. 22. Volusia County deputies say Suarez's husband, Luis Toledo, admitted he killed her but won't tell deputies what he did with her body. He denied killing the children.

She was a black woman in her 20s who wore a size 7 jeans, a Tommy Hilfiger jacket and a heart-shaped piece of jewelry decorated with pink stones. Her skeleton was found last week in west Orange County by a county road crew. She doesn't match the description of anyone reported missing. Orange County detectives hope someone who knows the woman will help them figure out who she is — and how she died. "Anything's a possibility at this point," sheriff's Cpl. Jason McMullen said.

Anthony Frazier, the former slave and Civil War veteran whose marble headstone lies on its back in a field of tall, wild grass in northwest Orange County, ran away from a Central Florida citrus plantation to join the Union Army in 1864. Along with his fellow slave and half brother, Joseph Robards, Frazier signed up in Hilton Head, S.C., and fought not only for their freedom but to keep the country from being torn apart. They were privates and engaged in several skirmishes, including a battle in Jacksonville.

Investigators in Palm Bay are looking for answers to a series of arsons that have plagued the city during the past few months. The Palm Bay fire marshal's office, the police department and the Department of Agriculture have several leads but want additional help from the public, the police department said Friday. Specifically, the investigative team thinks the fires have been set by a lone man or a group of several men led by someone who is angry at society or some institution.

No clues were left behind Tuesday when a thief broke through the front door at Quick Pick Printing and stole a stereo, police said.The robber broke into the business at 109 E. New York Ave. about 11 p.m. The value of the stereo was not available.

For a not-so-subtle clue on where Winter Park could be headed as it considers whether to protect historic landmarks from demolition, look no further than another forsaken casualty of the bulldozer: the trees. Late last year Winter Park commissioners chopped up the city's tree preservation ordinance. A good pruning would have been welcomed. The tree ordinance was too dense with expensive penalties. But the protection for Winter Park's tree canopy was hacked off at the base.

Seminole County detectives are re-examining evidence in a 15-year-old unsolved homicide and are asking the public for information that will help lead investigators to make an arrest in the case. Jacqueline "Jackie" Sheehan, a 31-year-old mother of two, was found dead in the Longwood area April 10, 1998. Shehan was last seen five days before that, when she left her home at the Willow Park Apartments in Altamonte Springs following a dispute with her boyfriend, Rodney Bice, the Sheriff's Office said.